We set out from Nairobi on December 22nd at a breakneck pace — our sights are on Malawi, and we have two weeks to get there and back. By bus! It’s really far, but we’ve been to most of the cities in between before, so it doesn’t matter if we blow right through them.

Other than the first leg (Nairobi to Arusha) we weren’t quite sure on the route to take to get to southern Tanzania. Most of the reviews and blogs we read said to steer clear of Dodoma (capital of Tanzania) route due to crappy roads, so we figured it’d be a good bet to head directly to Moshi then ask around there. We learned pretty quickly that, from Morogoro, “barabara ni lami mpaka South Africa” (the road is tarmac all the way to South Africa). Haya, twende Morogoro basi (alright, let’s go to Morogoro then).

So here we are, stuck in Morogoro! It’s a bustling little town at the feet of a beautiful mountain range. It’s pretty hot, but not as humid as Dar es Salaam. Unfortunately, too many people traveling home for Christmas means every bus outta here is full! Spending a few extra days off the road isn’t all bad, as my back was killing me, and both Randi and I were pretty dehydrated (despite trying to drink lots of water!). Christmas spirit seems to have made it to this funny little town—yesterday we saw a guy walking around the streets dressed up like Santa, and people were even selling Christmas “trees” (branches of fir trees, hehe).

Now we have to decide: where in Malawi do we want to go (alllll the way to Lilongwe, or just down to the lake near Karonga)? How do we make our way back up to Kenya (through Kigoma in western Tanzania, or through Dar es Salaam)?